Citizen Queen

~ The Lady in White ~ A piece of white lace, unfolded through the corridor, is fading around the corner into another room. Resting on the ground, it's mysterious smell calls to trace it down. A beautiful woman wearing a white off-shoulder dress with lace details is peacefully laying in her casket. Her skin pale and soft as a snow blanket, her hair black as the dead of the night. The blue Moon's shine enters the space, caressing her chest and bare shoulders. Her last sweet words, unspoken, hanging on her luscious lips. In her deep sleep she combs her long hair with her thin fingers. Her sharp nails are weaving the path, guiding you through the long dark night and onto the soft, clean white blanket. -Is it a dream?- You ask yourself. She is luring you into her embrace. Her skin scent emits an exotic mix of flowers sunk in sweetness, like summer warmth with a backbone of dirty indoles accompanied by the cooling breeze. So irresistible, that it makes you want to sink into her skin and breath her in deeply. Perfectly balanced so you become deaf and blind enough to stay close for just the right amount of time. The only thing you're left with is to follow your nose. An intoxicating vertigo of emotions and smells buried deep into a loving embrace, pierces your heart, sealed with a sharp kiss. Once the spinning is over, it's safe to say that you've experienced both life and death and surprisingly, got the best out of it. Because she is after all, also kind and giving. That is how Citizen Queen smells. Timeless, yet modern. Light, with underlying, brooding darkness. Cold, but providing warmth. Clean, but oh so pleasantly dirty. * * * In my opinion it's a romantic vampiric scent. The slightly animalic nature shows us her "fangs", making her not just another basic powdery scent. Right upon application, it smells like crushing white florals, iris and rose petals doused in sweet amber syrup mixed with melted labdanum and resins. There is also a cold freshness to it, until it melts down into the skin and becomes fluffy and warm. Almost like a vibrant orange tinted cocktail drink spilled on a dark red and black sofa with residues of an expensive powdery smelling lotion. The smell of leather is there, dancing with the powder. The aldehydes and iris are making the composition classy, giving a slight retro throw back. A true master-piece by house of JHAG. Scent: 10/10 Longevity: 8/10 Projection: 9/10

Citizen Queen is my favorite from JHAG, with Vengeance Extreme second. I‘m not a huge fan of this house and wouldn‘t wear most of their scents, but this one is really beautiful. It‘s a soft, fluffy white cloud of musk and powder, but soft doesn‘t mean weak or boring. This perfume has a multifaceted composition. It hits just the right spot between creamy and powdery, sweet and clean, warm and cool. It‘s not suffocating like some other strong powdery scents can be, as it‘s not too dry, but it‘s potent. The aldehydes in this are sparkling and fresh, so this smells modern and wearable for those who don‘t always like aldehydes. I usually don't like soapy scents, but it reminds me of soap bubbles in a good way. The leather note feels like smooth nude colored leather. It‘s more detactable when I sniff my skin directly and not so much around me. The musk is warm, but clean, and the iris is very noticeable in the powder scent. Even though it‘s not listed, I smell a hint of vanilla in this, most likely due to the amber note. This gets compared to the classics No 5 and Shalimar in many reviews on here. I get a hint of No 5 from the aldehydes in this, but no Shalimar at all. Anyways, Citizen Queen doesn‘t smell like an older perfume all in all, so those not into the classics don‘t need to be afraid. If you love fluffy, creamy, cuddly powder musks, try this, it‘s beautiful.

I'm not sure if I can review Citizen Queen properly since it always is a new perfume every time I put it on my skin. To own CQ is like having ten different perfumes (in one bottle). Every time I spray it I don't know what to expect, - what will happen this time? However, almost every time it's a more than pleasant experience. One day, while being enamored with LV, LVE and Midnight Oud, I decided to try this perfume too. And all I could say back then was "well, next". CQ worked just like some boring powder on my skin, I don't know why. Just powder and some leather. Nothing interesting, no rose whatsoever. However, I kept the sample and tried again later. And wow, next time it worked. I got the most beautiful iris/rose combination, smooth leather, and invigorating aldehydes. I got hooked and started to wear it every day. And every day it has been something new. One day it works as a leather perfume, bold and strong, another day it is the most sweet, sexy, fluffy powdery iris, next day it's a dewy rose, innocent and intoxicating, and so on. How can it be possible? My favourite variation of CQ is "smells like my skin, but better". My husband even cannot tell if I am perfumed or not when CQ works this way. If you are interested in a perfume which will play with you, try this. In five words: versatile, refined, powdery, leathery, chic.

Make no mistake, you'll bow, willingly and without a single protest! You have very little choice in the matter, to be honest. Citizen Queen is just THAT good! BUT, watch out for the first spray, it's a doozy and NOT, for the faint of heart. It's a big, 'chemical' reception, straight out of the aldehyde factory. I think it's meant to serve notice of the power to come. Fortunately, I have the olfactory heart of a lion! Citizen Queen did not scare me off, just the opposite. I was (and still am) drawn to it. A willing subject. Yes, the aldehydes blast out at you, but they soon relent, settling on the skin with beautiful precision. Citizen Queen is very structured to me. It's also wonderfully powdery and I do love a powder bomb! The most insistent notes on my skin, (iris and rose present only on my clothing) leather, labdanum, amber give the powder quite an edge. They even darken the composition for me. A strange occurrence for what is very much a powder puff. So take note of the edge powder lovers, THIS is not a comfort scent, though the powder on the air presents at times milky and slightly sweet. It's not a fragrance that sits cozy around the house while you relax. It walks confident and proud down Wall Street (or a backstreet) to hold court. Signed, Loyal Subject of the Queen

This is my third experience with a Juliette Has A Gun fragrance. Citizen Queen is nothing like my previous two, Mad Madame and Midnight Oud. This scent is sparkling, bright, beautiful, and totally unique. As I look for scents for warmer weather that aren’t "freshies" or like anything else, this fits the bill nicely. It is powdery and a bit soapy, but not in the way that you'd think. The soapiness, normally a huge turn off for my husband and I, is somehow gorgeous here. Another surprise are the aldehydes. Normally, my body chemistry interacts horribly with them, making me smell exactly like a nursing home (not an exaggeration). The aldehydes in Citizen Queen are not the same as those in your grandmother’s perfumes; here they are more effervescent and brilliant. The labdanum and resins add a hint of intoxication and olfactory heft without weighing it down. Other users report a stronger leather note than what I detect. To my husband and I, the "leather" smells more like a white suede note, definitely not a leathery-leather accord. Overall, this is a scent in which the sum of the parts hugely elevates the overall composition above any individual ingredient. It isn’t easy to describe. I am genuinely thrilled with this one *and* it isn’t even a heavy unisex frag! LOL.